1. Technical Field
One or more embodiments relate generally to systems and methods for controlling access to content. More specifically, one or more embodiments relate to systems and methods of allowing a user to access content to frequently accessed content.
2. Background and Relevant Art
Distributed electronic storage environments (e.g., cloud-based storage systems and other multi-server storage systems) provide content to users from one of a plurality of servers. Additionally, distributed storage environments often allow users to access content remotely, such as over an Internet connection. Distributed storage environments allow organizations to provide large amounts of data to many (often remotely located) users in an efficient manner.
The management of distributed storage environments requires controlling access to the content stored by the distributed storage environment. For example, different users often have different access privileges and restrictions to content. Ensuring that only authorized users can access restricted content typically involves authenticating users when the users attempt to access the content (e.g., via a username and password).
Managing and serving content in a distributed storage environment presents a number of difficulties. For example, typically for every single request for content, the system performs a user authentication process. When the content is served across multiple servers, each of the servers may require their own particular authentication requirements. As such, conventional user authentication processes can require valuable processing resources. One will appreciate that the necessary processing power needed for user authentication processes compounds with the larger number of files, servers, and users requesting access.
In addition to requiring substantial amounts of time and processing resources, users often are frustrated by the hassle of the authentication process. For example, the time required for the system to authenticate a user's access can slow down productively and annoy users. Similarly, having to repeatedly provide credentials in order to access content, particularly commonly accessed files, can cause user frustration. Some distributed storage environments reduce the need for a user to repeatedly manually provide credentials through the use of cookies. While the use of cookies can increase the efficiency of providing credentials upfront, the efficiency of the backend authentication process is typically not reduced by the use of cookies.
These and other disadvantages may exist with respect to managing and authenticating access to content in a distributed storage environment.